I like to provide proof/evidence of what I'm asserting when I can, as much for anyone else reading it as for you.
Thought I remembered Swansea fans saying he'd been switched to midfield on occasion, and this article seems to back that up, so think @lutonh8a may be right. Would transfermarkt take it into account if he started at CB and moved to CDM mid-game? https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport...ws/ben-wilmot-life-lockdown-becoming-18033926 "Parent club Watford have been keeping a close eye on the versatile centre-back, who has also been deployed in a deep-lying midfield role during his time at Swansea."
I don't really like Wilmot at C(D)M, but...he's probably our best option for the weekend isn't he? Putting aside whether Sanchez is good or bad, surely he's not going to be available from the start is he?
Yeah I'd definitely start him. Comfortable enough on the ball and can pick a pass, and not scared of making a tackle. Has looked a little unwilling to impose himself on the midfield but think that will come with time
Maybe maybe not. At least the football is a bit more enjoyable and we are winning more games, whether Xisco stumbled on the team and formation or not I don't really care, it was chore watching us under Ivic and towards the end we were terrible.
That's fair, but I think any old manager, including Ivic, would have been able to get a tune out of us in a 4-2-3-1 with our best team out, the last few games before Deeney got injured were probably the worst all season
But Ivic chose not to play that system. And no doubt that was in part due to the absence of any fit LB, but he could have switched Femenia over or moved Sema back, and he didn't because he preferred other styles of play. I know playing 4-3-3 with these players seemed fairly obvious to many of us for a while, but isn't choosing the right system and the right personnel one of the primary roles of the manager/head? Also I think there have been some big tactical choices made by Munoz - most notably deploying Hughes as the deepest of the midfield 3, but also starting Gray over Perica last night - that I don't think a well-informed forum poster would have considered, and they've worked out well
I will honestly admit that I have no idea if it would or not - it's perfectly possible and from what you've linked sounds probable, even. Seemingly never started there, but I'll see if there's any more clarity about.
I bet we'd have done a bit better with 4-2-3-1 from the start, without Masina, but in fairness, I don't remember Kiko playing particularly well at left-back so I don't think it would have been a magic bullet. Hughes playing at the base of midfield has worked, and it was Xisco who did it, but again, Deeney got injured and no longer had a hold of the team anymore so he was allowed to do the obvious. Also not sure how much credit to give to him for Gray scoring, it was only one game against Wycombe after all, not sure whether I'd call it a masterstroke
I don't think I'd call it a masterstroke either. But it was a big and controversial choice and it paid off last night with 3 points. If it precipitates a run of Gray scoring decisive goals then maybe we will come to consider it a masterstroke. I referred to the Hughes thing not because I don't recognise that 4-3-3 was a fortunate by-product of Deeney's injury, but because he could have put Chalobah there instead, and that's certainly what many or us would have intuited. But he went with Hughes and he has really excelled in that role and I do think he deserves genuine credit for that.
A lot of this is anecdotal but I can't really find any other mention of Wilmot playing in midfield at Swansea, either from my own twitter searching or from scanning articles from later in the season. The local paper's article on the injury that put him out for the rest of the season only refers to him as a defender, and couches it solely in terms of the defensive crisis it contributed to: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/swansea-city-watford-ben-wilmot-18526594 WhoScored themselves don't ever assess him in their historical data as having featured there: However, they include his time at Udinese in that, whereas both his appearances in Italy are listed as being at DMF on Transfermarkt, so we can't necessarily rely on WhoScored peudo-analysis either: It seems from my efforts that all we can tell for sure as it stands is that he was never named into a formation as a midfielder, and was always named as a centre back; anything more would have been adaptation on the fly, but I for one can't prove it happened if it did.
Without getting all Holland '74-'78 if he (Wilmot ) is a footballer he should be able to play in most positions. He has attributes that,as others have stated, will allow him to play in midfield. It's a Wilf Rostron/Marcus Gayle conversion,perhaps on this occasion a temporary one.
Don't care who gets the goals, if it's Joao Pedro, great, if it's Gray, fantastic, and I would give Xisco credit for that (more so than the introduction of Sierralta as there was little alternative for that game against Norwich). I think Hughes would excel wherever he plays, he's a fantastic asset for any club to have as he can play all over the midfield really, even played as a 'winger' under Javi
I remember he started as a left-back against Cardiff, and has played there off the bench a few times (as well as being the left-sided CB in a 3, which is kind of like our old-school left-backs), but I don't remember him ever starting for us in the middle of the park (maybe a League Cup game two seasons ago?)
Agreed. But while Hughes would excel almost anyway I think playing him deeper has ensured the best output from the team/midfield generally.
This is very much anecdotal indeed, but I remember being at a game against Reading away in what I think was the Carabao on a midweek evening under Javi, and my mind tells me that he began the game as a defensive midfielder, but was then very quickly forced to swap back to play in his more natural position after an injury to one of the initial starting centre backs. I think we won 2-0, possibly with a patented Quina screamer. I haven't tried to verify this before posting, for the fun of it, so I will now go and do so.
I was right about the scoreline, scorer and nature of goal, but we don't appear to have made any defensive substitutions in the game, so Wilmot's switch must have been a fantasy on my part! It looks like he played the entire game in midfield. Although the second goal that added glitz to the result was banged in by Quina, the decisive first was converted by none other than our very own Isaac Success, playing as a lone centre forward, finishing a delightful low driven cross from one A Masina. Whatever happened to him/that? On a sidenote I remember Reading fans after that game talking about how we were worlds apart as clubs going in opposing trajectories, and that they needed to learn from us in that regard or risk falling down the rabbit hole. In light of that, within two seasons, it's a little alarming to see how many of that total second-string 'August in the League Cup' team are still with us/form an integral part of our squad this very campaign: I make that 8 of the starting XI if you include Sir Isaac, and that entire midfield line has turned out to be eerily prophetic, in particular.
